“The housing recovery is likely to surge next year, as solid employment gains, low mortgage rates, and pent-up demand set the stage this year,” according to the National Association of Home Builders 2015 Spring Construction Forecast Webinar.

“This should be a good year for housing, buoyed by sustained job growth, rising consumer confidence that is back to pre-recession levels and a gradual uptick in household formations,” says NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “We expect 2016 to be even better, due to a significant amount of pent-up demand and an economy that will be entering a period of reasonable strength and consistency.”

NAHB economists, using the 2000-2003 period as a healthy benchmark for single-family starts, predict that single-family production will rise to 61 percent of normal activity by the fourth quarter of this year. Economists also predict that single-family starts will rise to 81 percent of normal by the end of 2016.

What’s more, economists say that by the end of 2016, the top 40 percent of states will be back to near normal production levels.”